Manfred's Cabinet
by alrob1995
Summary: A short story in which Miles Edgeworth and Franziska Von Karma while cleaning out Manfred's stuff after his execution, decided to look through a creepy old cabinet. inside they find many dark secrets behind both the Edgeworth and Von Karma Family. What made Manfred become a monster? Was he originally a good person? Was Gregory Edgeworth originally his friend?


**Prologue**

Growing up in the Von Karma family, there was this one cabinet that me and Franziska were told to never under any circumstances look inside, we never did out of fear of what Manfred would do to us if we had but it always piqued our curiosity. It was an unsettling looking cabinet, for two major reasons, the first being the fact that it was very lower middle class compared to the other objects and furniture in the Von Karma estate, the stark contrast of it compared to everything else gave it a very ominous vibe to say the least, it looked like something you'd find in a very underfunded public school; the second fact that made it unsettling was that it looked like it hadn't been dusted or opened in decades, it was covered in layers of dust and I don't think I had ever seen it opened, moreover Manfred would never look at it, he would always avert his head and he always looked extremely uncomfortable when near the cabinet.

None of that matters now though, it's now 2017 and Manfred had just been executed last night for the crimes he had committed. Franziska called me this morning asking me to help her clean out his stuff from the estate; she seems to be taking this strangely well.

 **1**

It was a cold winter's day, almost Christmas actually. I parked my car into the familiar driveway; the house hadn't changed a bit. Franziska was waiting outside, next to the front door to greet me.

Franziska: "thank you for coming Miles, I appreciate your help in this"

Miles: "it's fine, I've actually been quite free with my time recently. How are you coping?"

Franziska: "I don't particularly want to talk about it if you don't mind, if you must know I'm feeling a very large and differing array of emotions right now, let's just get this job over with, I'm planning on selling most of this stuff anyway"

I walked with her through the old familiar hallway, up the old familiar stairs.

Franziska: "we will start with the upstairs; I have multiple extended family members that would like a lot of this stuff, if you could help me put them in boxes that would be great"

Miles: "Franziska what do you suppose we should do with that old creepy cabinet, which we were always told not to go near as kids?"

Franziska: "I have no idea, I don't even know what is inside it, and I certainly don't think anyone would want it"

I suddenly felt a cloud of fear come over me "do you think we should look inside"

Franziska's face deepened and paused for a moment "...yes I think we should, if only to figure out what we should do with the thing"

The cabinet was made out of cheap ply wood and had a flimsy metal handle on the door, I pulled on it, but it wouldn't open, the door hadn't been opened in so long that it was stuck. It took a few brute force pulls but me and Franziska finally got it open. The inside smelled terrible as if a rodent had died in it long ago, moreover it was caked in more dust then one could possibly imagine.

Inside were a bunch of miscellaneous objects, photos and newspaper articles.

We decided to examine everything one by one.

I pulled out a small wooden box, and opened it. It was full of old unused medications, mostly anti psychotics for mental disorders like bipolar and OCD, however it looked like the medications hadn't been taken in a very long time, they were caked in dust and the types of medications were medically outdated.

Franziska: "why would my father have medications for mental disorders and why did he never take them?"

Miles: "let's just keep looking"

The objects got progressively more disturbing. I pulled out a newspaper article dated from 1976, the title read in big bold letters " **Middle aged married couple identified as Belinda Von Karma and Anthony Von Karma brutally murdered and their son Manfred Von Karma remains missing"**

We both looked at this newspaper article in shock and confusion, Franziska seemed the most effected. "what the hell is this?! Were these my grandparents? I never knew my grandparents"

Franziska "we should put this article back; I don't want to keep looking at it. Let's look at what else is in this cabinet"

I pulled out what looked like a rope, it wasn't a rope...

Suddenly I felt a serious and powerful dread come over me. Franziska's mouth was wide open in shock.

Miles: ... i.. i.. is that a noose

Franziska: "WHY WOULD MY FATHER HAVE A NOOSE!"

Franziska: "I want to get the hell out of this cabinet! We are meant to be cleaning out my father's stuff, not snooping on his private life"

I ignored Franziska's rambling and pulled out a small old Polaroid photograph. The colour had slightly faded due to its age but I could still make out the details. The photograph was of three friends, "my two favourite people" was written in pen on the top of the photograph in what was obviously Manfred's style of writing. The friends were smiling and had their arms around each other's shoulders. The friend in the middle was clearly Manfred but much younger, his hair was blond and slicked back, he was wearing a green coat and one his cravats that he would often wear. What struck me as especially odd was his face, his face looked gleeful, warm, kind and full of life; it was in stark contrast to the bitterer Manfred I grew up knowing. The friend on the right was also smiling, she was a black haired young woman, tall and casually dressed; she actually looked very similar to Franziska, the hair style and face looked almost identical. But the friend on the left was possibly the most shocking thing I will ever see, he was smiling and looking cheery like the others, wore glasses and had a hair style almost identical to mine. He looked really familiar; I gave it a closer look and realized that the friend of Manfred's on the left with his arm around Manfred's shoulder was unmistakably my father.


End file.
